Hi, my name is Cora Wendlandt. I am from Newton, MA and, currently, a rising junior at Buckingham Browne & Nichols High School in Cambridge, MA. I took Honors Biology as a freshman and am hoping to take AP Biology as a senior. One of my school's biology teachers, Dr. Long, highly recommended this camp, and I believe that this camp is an amazing opportunity to explore different areas of science and mathematics.
I have loved math, science and solving problems since I was little, but I could never chose which career I enjoyed the most. Biological research is a foreign topic to me, and Boston Leadership Institute allows me to explore career options that are not available in high school.
I took Honors Physics my sophomore year, and, although it was a difficult course, I really enjoyed it. After taking physics, I began to consider engineering as a possible career. I am going to take Honors Chemistry as a junior, and I am thinking about becoming a biochemist.
Apart from math and science, I play soccer. I play for my school team and also for Chestnut Hill Soccer Club. I was on Junior Varsity my freshman year and moved up to Varsity my sophomore year. My club team won Open Cup last year and moved up to division one in maple this year. We hope to continue our successful path into State Cup next year.
This past year, I have been mainly focused on what careers I am most interested in. In March, I traveled to South Africa and Swaziland with 11 other people from my school on a science trip. There we immersed ourselves in a lively culture and helped graduate students with their research. One of these students was studying how changes in vegetation affect tortoise movement. This trip allowed me to discover how science and math learned in school can be applied and used In the real world
Desalinating Water
Water makes up 71 percent of our planet, but that is not nearly enough water to sustain our ever growing population using modern technology. As the human population grows every year, the availability of water for every person diminishes. We use water for drinking, growing food, medicine and much more. Freshwater only makes up three percent of the entire Earth’s water supply. 97 percent of that water is salt water. We cannot use that water for drinking, growing food, medicine and all of the many applications for freshwater. However, if we could use that salt water, the fear of not having enough freshwater ends. The desalination of water is an area currently unexplored by synthetic biologists, but other technologies have attempted to discover solutions to this problem. One example is thermal desalination. This process involves evaporating the water, leaving the salt behind, and condensing the now purified water. Thermal desalination is very effective because only the water evaporates, so the end product is completely salt free. A second example is reverse osmosis. In this method, the salt water is forced through a series of membranes that are permeable to the water molecules, but not to the larger salt molecules. As a result, reverse osmosis is very effective, like thermal desalination. However, both of these methods are energy intensive and, consequently, extremely expensive. Creating a bacteria that would be able to absorb salt from water, as effectively as these methods, would allow us to desalinate water with almost no energy and, as a result, with exponentially less money. In order to design this bacteria, three devices would be needed. The first device needed would detect salt in the environment surrounding the bacteria. The second, activated by the first, would transport the salt into the bacteria. The third, would retain the salt inside the bacteria. The human kidney functions in an almost identical manner. The macula densa detects when salt is in its environment, which then releases renin, which results in the release of angiotensin, which causes the absorption of salt, and aldosterone, which cause the retention of the salt absorbed by the cell. My design would hopefully be able to use some of the DNA from the human kidney to absorb salt from water. The bacteria would have the macula densa salt receptor in order to detect when salt was in the environment surrounding the bacteria. This receptor would then release renin in order to activate a second sensor, specific to renin. This second receptor would then release angiotensin and aldosterone. The angiotensin would bind to a transport protein. This protein would then be activated and begin to absorb salt into the bacteria. The aldosterone would prevent the cell from secreting the salt after it was absorbed. After this entire cycle has been executed successfully many times, the bacteria will have desalinated the water.
This bacteria possesses some potential problems. Most bacteria do not naturally live in salt water. After putting the bacteria in the salt water, it may not get the necessary minerals and nutrients it needs to survive. As a result, the bacteria may absorb the salt, but not survive long enough to completely desalinate the water. This could be fixed by finding bacteria extremophiles that may be able to withstand exposure to large amounts of salt. Another issue would be preventing the bacteria from harming life outside the lab while it is being created. This can be solved by inhibiting the bacteria from surviving outside the lab. I would have a specific protein, provided to bacteria in the lab, that would allow it to survive. Outside the lab, the bacteria would not obtain this protein and, as a result, would not survive. Using bacteria to desalinate water has many advantages. First, it is not costly. The bacteria creates and uses its own energy. The biggest expense would be the original creation of the bacteria. After it is made, the bacteria can copy itself using mitosis. Second, the majority of the freshwater is used in agriculture. After the water is desalinated by bacteria, farmers can use it right away. This would allow massive amounts of food to be grown as long as there is space to grow more. Third, the desalinated water can be used for drinking water. Because the bacteria are much larger than the salt molecules, they are very easily filtered out. As a result, after the bacteria have absorbed the salt and been filtered out from the water, the water is easily drinkable. Water plays an important role in our lives and, immensely increasing our supply of usable water, using this desalinating bacteria, can aid us in greatly advancing our society. Testing the effectiveness and efficiency of this bacteria would be relatively simple. I would measure the salt content in the ocean water. Then, after putting the bacteria inside the water for a various amounts of time, I would measure the salt content. After multiple tests, I would know the average amount of salt absorbed by the bacteria in a certain time frame. With our results, I will be able to make additions to and remove parts of the bacteria in order to make my final product as effective and efficient as possible.
I have loved math, science and solving problems since I was little, but I could never chose which career I enjoyed the most. Biological research is a foreign topic to me, and Boston Leadership Institute allows me to explore career options that are not available in high school.
I took Honors Physics my sophomore year, and, although it was a difficult course, I really enjoyed it. After taking physics, I began to consider engineering as a possible career. I am going to take Honors Chemistry as a junior, and I am thinking about becoming a biochemist.
Apart from math and science, I play soccer. I play for my school team and also for Chestnut Hill Soccer Club. I was on Junior Varsity my freshman year and moved up to Varsity my sophomore year. My club team won Open Cup last year and moved up to division one in maple this year. We hope to continue our successful path into State Cup next year.
This past year, I have been mainly focused on what careers I am most interested in. In March, I traveled to South Africa and Swaziland with 11 other people from my school on a science trip. There we immersed ourselves in a lively culture and helped graduate students with their research. One of these students was studying how changes in vegetation affect tortoise movement. This trip allowed me to discover how science and math learned in school can be applied and used In the real world
Desalinating Water
Water makes up 71 percent of our planet, but that is not nearly enough water to sustain our ever growing population using modern technology. As the human population grows every year, the availability of water for every person diminishes. We use water for drinking, growing food, medicine and much more. Freshwater only makes up three percent of the entire Earth’s water supply. 97 percent of that water is salt water. We cannot use that water for drinking, growing food, medicine and all of the many applications for freshwater. However, if we could use that salt water, the fear of not having enough freshwater ends.
The desalination of water is an area currently unexplored by synthetic biologists, but other technologies have attempted to discover solutions to this problem. One example is thermal desalination. This process involves evaporating the water, leaving the salt behind, and condensing the now purified water. Thermal desalination is very effective because only the water evaporates, so the end product is completely salt free.
A second example is reverse osmosis. In this method, the salt water is forced through a series of membranes that are permeable to the water molecules, but not to the larger salt molecules. As a result, reverse osmosis is very effective, like thermal desalination. However, both of these methods are energy intensive and, consequently, extremely expensive. Creating a bacteria that would be able to absorb salt from water, as effectively as these methods, would allow us to desalinate water with almost no energy and, as a result, with exponentially less money.
In order to design this bacteria, three devices would be needed. The first device needed would detect salt in the environment surrounding the bacteria. The second, activated by the first, would transport the salt into the bacteria. The third, would retain the salt inside the bacteria. The human kidney functions in an almost identical manner. The macula densa detects when salt is in its environment, which then releases renin, which results in the release of angiotensin, which causes the absorption of salt, and aldosterone, which cause the retention of the salt absorbed by the cell. My design would hopefully be able to use some of the DNA from the human kidney to absorb salt from water. The bacteria would have the macula densa salt receptor in order to detect when salt was in the environment surrounding the bacteria. This receptor would then release renin in order to activate a second sensor, specific to renin. This second receptor would then release angiotensin and aldosterone. The angiotensin would bind to a transport protein. This protein would then be activated and begin to absorb salt into the bacteria. The aldosterone would prevent the cell from secreting the salt after it was absorbed. After this entire cycle has been executed successfully many times, the bacteria will have desalinated the water.
This bacteria possesses some potential problems. Most bacteria do not naturally live in salt water. After putting the bacteria in the salt water, it may not get the necessary minerals and nutrients it needs to survive. As a result, the bacteria may absorb the salt, but not survive long enough to completely desalinate the water. This could be fixed by finding bacteria extremophiles that may be able to withstand exposure to large amounts of salt. Another issue would be preventing the bacteria from harming life outside the lab while it is being created. This can be solved by inhibiting the bacteria from surviving outside the lab. I would have a specific protein, provided to bacteria in the lab, that would allow it to survive. Outside the lab, the bacteria would not obtain this protein and, as a result, would not survive.
Using bacteria to desalinate water has many advantages. First, it is not costly. The bacteria creates and uses its own energy. The biggest expense would be the original creation of the bacteria. After it is made, the bacteria can copy itself using mitosis. Second, the majority of the freshwater is used in agriculture. After the water is desalinated by bacteria, farmers can use it right away. This would allow massive amounts of food to be grown as long as there is space to grow more. Third, the desalinated water can be used for drinking water. Because the bacteria are much larger than the salt molecules, they are very easily filtered out. As a result, after the bacteria have absorbed the salt and been filtered out from the water, the water is easily drinkable. Water plays an important role in our lives and, immensely increasing our supply of usable water, using this desalinating bacteria, can aid us in greatly advancing our society.
Testing the effectiveness and efficiency of this bacteria would be relatively simple. I would measure the salt content in the ocean water. Then, after putting the bacteria inside the water for a various amounts of time, I would measure the salt content. After multiple tests, I would know the average amount of salt absorbed by the bacteria in a certain time frame. With our results, I will be able to make additions to and remove parts of the bacteria in order to make my final product as effective and efficient as possible.
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